AI will increasingly support doctors and other medical professionals, but it will not replace them, as it is a tool, not an alternative. Specialists should be listened to more often by technology developers so that the solutions provided are useful to doctors, patients and the health system. Startups, when presenting new solutions, should also consider the economic aspect of their implementation in health care. These and many other issues related to business in the health market were discussed at the 3rd edition of Health Business Innovations on 28.11.2024 in Katowice, Poland.
- Business cooperation with hospitals and other health care entities, biotechnology, eHealth, the role of AI in medicine, devices and other medical devices – future growth areas for business in the health market
- What role will Poland play in the medical device sector in Europe and globally?
- Trends, business and management models, as well as innovations in the health market in Poland were discussed for the third time during the HBI
More than 200 people were attracted to the third edition of a nationwide conference for owners and managers of companies, hospitals and organizations in the health market, organized by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Katowice.
– The interest in attending HBI 2024, which once again ran out of seats, shows how important this area is. I would like to thank the experts, partners and participants for an extremely interesting meeting, experience sharing and a giant dose of inspiration on the topic of business cooperation with hospitals and other health care units, AI, e-health, biotechnology, device manufacturing and other medical devices. The activity in the networking zone exceeded our wildest expectations. I believe that all this will strengthen the development of business relations among the participants, as well as in the localities of the Upper Silesian-Zagłębi Metropolis located in the central part of the Silesian Voivodeship, which on the map of the region and Poland has plenty of reasons to be proud of due to the development of medicine, medical services and technologies, science and business in the area of health – said Janusz Dramski, First Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Katowice, organizer of HBI 2024.
The fact that medicine is a good direction for the economic development of the GZM Metropolis and the entire Silesian region, which increases its attractiveness for business and improves the lives of its residents, is shown by the example of Katowice and Zabrze, among others. The existing educational, scientific, research, service, business and startup facilities allow for the dynamic development of this sector in cities associated until recently primarily with mines and other heavy industry enterprises.
– Talking about the development of the medical business in Silesia, and especially in the cities that make up the Upper Silesian-Zagłębów Metropolis, seems to be a natural thing to do because of the development of this sector in our areas since the first half of the 20th century in the area of services, science and business – mentioned Jacek Woźnikowski, director of the Department of Social and Economic Development and Cooperation in the Upper Silesian-Zagłębów Metropolis.
– Katowice has been focusing on the development of innovative companies for years. IT, digitization and gaming are these leading technology specializations, but in the world of technology – especially digital technology – solutions for industries and the industries themselves often intermingle. Therefore, medtech, healthtech, e-health are part of Katowice’s development directions in the context of its metropolitan and regional smart specializations. Also in the Katowice Gaming and Technology Hub, which remains in Nikiszowiec, we will focus on different technologies and the creation of digital bridges – said Łukasz Żółciak, smart city officer in Katowice.
The Silesian Voivodeship emphasizes new technologies and innovations in health, as evidenced, among other things, by the inclusion of medicine in the region’s list of smart specializations. Cities in the Silesian Voivodeship are a natural place to develop and grow innovations, technologies and startups in health. The experience of the Silesian local government (Business in Silesia, Invest in Silesia), or the Katowice Special Economic Zone, in serving foreign and domestic investors is our added advantage. This was pointed out by the president of the Silesian Startup Foundation, Kuba Nagórski, during an August presentation of the foundation’s directions, who announced his willingness to support work on attracting branches and divisions of technology companies from the world to Silesia, especially to the Metropolis.
The conference discussed issues relevant to the process of creating answers to patients’ needs from the perspective of entrepreneurs working for the health market. The discussion revolved around the following thematic areas: cooperation of business with hospitals and other health care units (such as primary care and AOS), eHealth, production of devices and other medical products, as well as achievements in the field of biotechnology and the growing use of artificial intelligence in solutions for the health market in Poland and worldwide.
Very lively discussions took place in the networking zone throughout the day, where there was high attendance all the time.
The substantive introduction to this year’s HBI was made by Dr. Wojciech Wawrzynek, a provincial consultant in radiology and diagnostic imaging and a member of the Regional Medical Court of the Silesian Medical Chamber in Katowice, who, representing the medical self-government in the Silesian province, focused on the impact of artificial intelligence and related aspects (such as machine learning) on activities in medicine.
Marzena Krawiec, director of outpatient specialty care and laboratory and imaging diagnostics at American Heart of Poland Group, strongly emphasized the need to pay attention to the economic aspects of these solutions when developing new devices for use by health care units. She pointed to a simple example of a barrier to the application of many of the new solutions her business proposes, when, for services reimbursed by the National Health Fund, a unit receives X amount for a given procedure, and the unit’s manager will not make the decision to use a device that is newer in terms of quality if its use will make the service unprofitable.
Telemedicine is growing in strength, showed the results of the 2020-2024 National Health Test of Poles conducted by Medonet. At the same time, overweight and obesity has become an extremely big challenge in our society. This is an area of such importance that, using folk wisdom in the style of the sayings “we are what we eat” and “in a healthy body a healthy spirit,” one can see a huge area for improvement, and behind it also a wide field for solutions offered by business, including startups.
– More than 70% of those who have used telemedicine visits in the past 12 months indicate that such a visit meets their needs (40% completely and 38% indicated that it does although they prefer an offline visit). Obesity and overweight already affect 51% of the population, and this implies other diseases and increases the number of medical needs of the public. I encourage you to read the full content of the report National Health Test of Poles 2020-2024 on the pages of our portal – recalled Monika Dobrowolska-Filip, Medonet.pl
Participants in the discussion on biotechnology, chaired by Adam Konka, a member of the expert team for medtech and biotech at the Regional Chamber of Commerce in Katowice. medtech and biotech at the Regional Chamber of Commerce in Katowice, noted that this is a sector with a very large development potential in Poland (including Silesia – suffice it to mention, for example, the existing activities of the Park of Medical Technologies Cardio-Med Silesia in Zabrze, or the developed Research and Implementation Center Silesia LabMed – a network of modern specialized laboratories within the infrastructure at the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Katowice and the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Zabrze of the Silesian Medical University and other Units with advanced laboratories in the voivodeship. Silesian advanced laboratories, which can and should be used for the development of innovative ideas/projects and, consequently, start-ups and BioTech companies, which already today can and will be able in the future (in this and future EU perspective until 2035), to settle in Silesia. Silesia is likely to become in the coming years, Poland’s leading BioTech and MedTech HUB.
The field of e-health seems to be a future panacea for increasing the efficiency of medical visits and patient treatment support activities. Łukasz Warchał, CEO of Nubisoft, cited survey results published by znanylekarz.pl indicating that 61% of respondents see an opportunity for AI to support medical practices in terms of reducing administrative workload through automation. In turn, Przemek Grzywa, co-CEO at Revolve Healthcare, pointed to examples of smartphone applications that doctors prescribe. The largest such market as of today is Germany, where nearly 375,000 prescriptions have been issued under DiGA (Digital Health Apps) through September 2023.
We thank the experts who accepted the invitation to make a presentation or participate in the discussion moderated during HBI 2024
We invite you to participate in the next edition of Health Business Innovations – a conference for owners and managers of companies, hospitals and organizations in the health market in Poland.
Save the DATE: 10.04.2025
We will inform about the details of the spring meeting on www.HealthBusiness.pl and on www.rig.katowice.pl and social media of the Regional Chamber of Commerce in Katowice.
We would like to thank the Partners of the 3rd edition of Health Business Innovations, which took place on 28.11.2024 in Katowice:
- City of Katowice
- Upper Silesian and Zagłębie Metropolis
- Silesian Voivodeship – Business in Silesia
We would like to thank the Media Patrons and Honorary Patrons of HBI 2024 for their support in promoting this unique business meeting on the map of Poland.
